Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Washington University’s Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has been ranked 4th in the nation, according to DesignIntelligence, which publishes an annual guide to America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools. The 13th annual report polled leaders from 277 architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design and interior design firms about which programs have, over the last five years, best prepared students for professional practice.

The city of the future is a utopian confection of luxurious modernist skyscrapers, except when it’s a hidden nightmare of exploited subterranean workers, a comedy of anonymous office spaces or a collection of geodesic domes orbiting Saturn. Throughout the 20th century, filmmakers have explored the ever-quickening pace of technological development through visionary images of both social and architectural space. In December, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will screen three such films as part of its Cities of the Future Film Series.

Washington University in St. Louis recently was named one of the top producers of U.S. Fulbright students, based on outcomes of the 2011-2012 competition. The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, recently announced the complete list of top-producing colleges and universities in the Oct. 24 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

What can art learn from ecology? It’s a question posed both implicitly and explicitly by visionary artist Tomás Saraceno, whose plans for an airborne city render obsolete the very idea of “environmental footprint.” At 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “A Sustainable Future,” an interdisciplinary panel discussion held in conjunction with the exhibition Tomás Saraceno: Cloud Specific.

Ten cutting-edge Sukkahs by architects and designers from around the nation were installed Oct. 17, just south of the Ann W. Olin Women’s Building. The projects, which remain on view through Saturday, Oct. 22, are winners of Sukkah City STL, an ambitious contemporary design competition that challenged participants to reimagine the traditional Jewish Sukkah through the lens of contemporary art and architecture

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Washington University in St. Louis announce recipients of grants from the joint Academic Venture Fund. The purpose of the AVF is to support collaboration between scholars at WUSTL and the Brookings Institution, particularly long-term projects that impact research, education and policy.

Patrick Henry Academy is an historic elementary school located in St. Louis’ Columbus Square neighborhood. Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and School is a longtime Hyde Park anchor. Last summer, students and faculty in the Sam Fox School completed design/build projects at both locations under the auspices of CityStudioSTL, a new program offering community engagement and architectural outreach projects throughout the St. Louis area. On Oct. 19, visiting artist Theaster Gates Jr., who led the Hyde Park project, will discuss his work in a public lecture. 

Twelve current or former Washington University in St. Louis students have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships to study, conduct research and/or teach English abroad for the 2011-12 academic year. They are among 1,600 U.S. citizens who will spend a full academic year in a host country through the Fulbright Program.    

Ten cutting-edge Sukkahs by architects and designers from around the nation will be installed Oct. 18-22 on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The projects are winners of Sukkah City STL, an ambitious contemporary design competition that challenged participants to reimagine the traditional Jewish Sukkah — a small, temporary structure erected each fall during the weeklong festival of Sukkot — through the lens of contemporary art and architecture.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts has announced the recipients of its 2011 Faculty Creative Activity Research Grants. Four art and architecture faculty members will each receive between $1,000 and $8,000 to support a variety of projects. These range from research about the Elizabethan “Lost Colony” of North Carolina and a monograph on Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck to a mobile art studio traveling the Gulf Coast and new methods of architectural fabrication in Jakarta, Indonesia.